Wednesday, March 26, 2008

POWER OF HOPE November 1, 2007 "Hope is the dream of a soul awake." ~ proverbDear Peace-makers and Friends,Today we invite you to pause for a moment and reflect on the Power of Hope.Hope is one of the 12 Noble Powers(R) all human beings possess. Hope is a fundamental virtue found in every world religion, alongside love and faith. It is the seed of possibility that stokes our imaginations and sustains our visions for Peace.What is this force called Hope, and what is it for?Essentially, Hope is a way of navigating the future, a means for transcending the darkness and limitation of the present day. Hope is not born for that which is easy or certain. It knows there are challenges and a price to pay. Hope is tough and audacious and often unreasonable. Hope dares to believe despite what it sees.Hope for the future is a life force in itself. Physicians and caregivers affirm that hope can make the difference between who recovers and who doesn't, who lives and who dies.Whether you are dealing with a serious illness, facing a financial challenge or living in conditions that make life difficult to bear, hope can be the difference between surviving and thriving or succumbing to fear and pain. You may feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and nearly ready to give up. Yet, with hope and even a small chance for improvement, you can summons the strength to rise up and carry on.As we enter this season of Peace and Thanks-Giving, may you nurture this capacity for hope within yourself:

Visualize your desired outcomes; Read stories of triumph and courage; Spend time with resilient people; Take one action to improve your life TODAY. [Take another to improve the life of another person TODAY.]

You can also be a source of hope for others by reaching out in your community and by choosing gifts that make a difference for its creator as well as its receiver. These exchanges of hope represent a world of opportunity and dignity to women and families in need. It is one of the simplest and nicest ways we have found to make Peace the way we live, and a reason we give.Wishing you Peace, Hope and Love everyday,Kimberly King & Brent Bisson, And The Peace Company Team

PEACE SYMBOL

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7292252.stm

Thursday, 20 March 2008

World's best-known protest symbol turns 50 By Kathryn Westcott?BBC NewsIt started life as the emblem of the British anti-nuclear movement but it has become an international sign for peace, and arguably the most widely used protest symbol in the world. It has also been adapted, attacked and commercialised.It had its first public outing 50 years ago on a chilly Good Friday as thousands of British anti-nuclear campaigners set off from London's Trafalgar Square on a 50-mile march to the weapons factory at Aldermaston.The demonstration had been organised by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) joined in.?I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squadGerald HoltomGerald Holtom, a designer and former World War II conscientious objector from West London, persuaded DAC that their aims would have greater impact if they were conveyed in a visual image. The "Ban the Bomb" symbol was born. He considered using a Christian cross motif but, instead, settled on using letters from the semaphore - or flag-signalling - alphabet, super-imposing N (uclear) on D (isarmament) and placing them within a circle symbolising Earth. The sign was quickly adopted by CND. Holtom later explained that the design was "to mean a human being in despair" with arms outstretched downwards.

"No matter how piercing and appalling his insights, the desolation creeping over his outer world, the lurid lights and shadows of his inner world, the writer must live with hope, work in faith."J.B. Priestley

"All his life William Faulkner had avoided speeches, and insisted that he not be taken as a man of letters. 'I'm just a farmer who likes to tell stories.' he once said. Because of his known aversion to making formal pronouncements, there was much interest, when he traveled to Stockholm to receive the prize on December 10, 1950, in what he would say in the speech that custom obliged him to deliver. Faulkner evidently wanted to set right the misinterpretation of his own work as pessimistic. But beyond that, he recognized that, as the first American novelist to receive the prize since the end of World War II, he had a special obligation to take the changed situation of the writer, and of man, into account."

Richard Ellmann

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work--a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand where I am standing. Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed--love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands. Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail. Dick Bennettjbennet@uark.edu(479) 442-4600

POWER OF HOPE November 1, 2007 "Hope is the dream of a soul awake." ~ proverbDear Peace-makers and Friends,Today we invite you to pause for a moment and reflect on the Power of Hope.Hope is one of the 12 Noble Powers(R) all human beings possess. Hope is a fundamental virtue found in every world religion, alongside love and faith. It is the seed of possibility that stokes our imaginations and sustains our visions for Peace.What is this force called Hope, and what is it for?Essentially, Hope is a way of navigating the future, a means for transcending the darkness and limitation of the present day. Hope is not born for that which is easy or certain. It knows there are challenges and a price to pay. Hope is tough and audacious and often unreasonable. Hope dares to believe despite what it sees.Hope for the future is a life force in itself. Physicians and caregivers affirm that hope can make the difference between who recovers and who doesn't, who lives and who dies.Whether you are dealing with a serious illness, facing a financial challenge or living in conditions that make life difficult to bear, hope can be the difference between surviving and thriving or succumbing to fear and pain. You may feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and nearly ready to give up. Yet, with hope and even a small chance for improvement, you can summons the strength to rise up and carry on.As we enter this season of Peace and Thanks-Giving, may you nurture this capacity for hope within yourself:

Visualize your desired outcomes; Read stories of triumph and courage; Spend time with resilient people; Take one action to improve your life TODAY. [Take another to improve the life of another person TODAY.]

You can also be a source of hope for others by reaching out in your community and by choosing gifts that make a difference for its creator as well as its receiver. These exchanges of hope represent a world of opportunity and dignity to women and families in need. It is one of the simplest and nicest ways we have found to make Peace the way we live, and a reason we give.Wishing you Peace, Hope and Love everyday,Kimberly King & Brent Bisson, And The Peace Company Team

Monday, March 24, 2008

VIOLENCE NOT INEVITABLE In WESTERN PAKISTANDick Bennett 3-23-08"The thing I find most puzzling about the United States today is howlittle real debate there has been over the almost unanimous acceptance ofthe idea that the only way to defeat terrorism is through policies of war."These words apply to US imperial actions, either through attack orthreatened attack, in a dozen or more countries in recent years-from Panamato Serbia, to Afghanistan and Iraq. Let's take a hard case-western Pakistan. In referring to the clansand tribes along the Afghan border, our government leaders and punditssometimes sound like the citizen of Gabon, who said about its 72-year-oldautocrat, Omar Bongo, the longest-serving leader in the world: "God broughthim to us and only God can call him away." Western Pakistan is perceivedby most US leaders and mainstream media as intractably violent and orderlyonly by violence. Vice-President Dick Cheney on March 20 urged Pakistan tobattle extremists in its border regions, and almost on the same dayapparently U.S. missiles from an unmanned drone struck a "suspected militantsafehouse and killed about 20 people." In some areas a "Talibanization"takeover of mosques and suicide bombers seems to be spreading. But such violence has not always been the case, and the future ofwestern Pakistan is not inevitably violent. Let's remember three thingsabout this in many ways benighted part of the world: the nonviolentmovement of Ghaffar-Badshah--Khan during the 1930s, the yearning forschools apparently all along the northern and western frontiers, and thepresent rise to power of the three secular parties, including the third insize Awami National Party.The biography of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan by Eknath Easwaran, A Man toMatch His Mountains: Badshah Khan, Nonviolent Soldier of Islam, centers onthe metamorphosis Khan effected in the violence-afflicted Pathans of India'snorthwest frontier, especially in Waziristan, turning them into peacefulnonviolent disciples of Gandhi during India's independence movement.Easwaran focuses on the spiritual change and on Ghaffar Khan's leadershipand his emergence as the frontier Gandhi. The book's great achievement istelling an American audience about an Islamic practitioner of nonviolence ata moment when few in the West understand its effectiveness and fewer stillassociate it with anything Islamic. The story of Greg Mortenson's long struggle to bring education to theBalti children of northern Pakistan, entitled Three Cups of Tea, reinforcesa vision of peace parallel to that of Khan's (who also built schools). Inthis area similar to the Afghan border provinces, Minnesotan Mortensonencountered bandits, precarious mountainous travel, avalanches, beingkidnapped, the absence of school materials, and the shortage of food, water,and medicine. But he also became the hope of the many who wanted education(including refugees from Afghanistan after 9-11 who had been bombed by U.S.planes), and not the madrassa schools being built by Saudis. Hisconclusion: "If we try to resolve terrorism with military might alone, thenwe will be no safer than we were before 9-11. If we truly want a legacy ofpeace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that willultimately be won with books, not bombs."Finally, in the recent elections in Pakistan the deeplyconservative northwest voters threw out the Islamist parties that ruled theethnic Pashtun North West Frontier Province for five years, and gave theirsupport to secular parties that promised streets, jobs, and peaceful dialog(opposing U.S. pressure to intensify attacks on suspected militants linkedto al-Qaida and the Taliban). The main secular party in this Province, theAwami National Party, has been invited to join the government being formedby Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan MuslimLeague-N (against President Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Q. Thealliance of Awami with the two largest secular parties should not astonish,since Islamist parties in Pakistan have never won more than 11 percent ofthe vote. Let us remember too UNESCO's "Seville Declaration," summarizing thescientific evidence against the view that we have an inherent tendency tomake war, and Douglas Fry's extraordinarily well-supported case in The HumanPotential for Peace that humans possess propensities not only to behaveaggressively but also to behave cooperatively with kindness for others. References:Amazon.com, Editorial Reviews.Easwaran, Eknath. A Man to Match His Mountains: Badshah Khan, NonviolentSoldier of Islam. Plough, 1985.Fry, Douglas. The Human Potential for Peace: An Anthropological Challengeto Assumptions about War and Violence. Oxford UP, 2006. Gannon, Kathy. "Voters Toss Religious Extremists: Northwest ConservativesBack Secular Parties." TMN 2-21-08.Guerrero, Patty. Rev. of Mortenson, Greg, and David Relin, Three Cups ofTea, in Worldwide WAMM (March 2008). "Pakistan," ADG (Feb. 21, 2008) p. 8A.Pennington, Matthew. "Pakistan's Key Opposition Agrees to Govern Together."TMN (Feb. 22, 2008). Pitman, Todd. "Bongo Now Longest-Serving Leader," ADG (3-22-08). Rubin, Trudy. "The General's Dangerous Aim." ADG (Nov. 12, 2007). Wood, Edward, Jr. Worshipping the Myths of World War II: Reflections onAmerica's Dedication to War. Potomac Books, 2006. Dick Bennett

March 24, 2008, BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE TO REPLACE THE CULTURE OF WAR, Dick Bennett, Editor

ON MARCH 22, THE PENTAGON ANNOUNCED THE 4000TH SOLDIER KILLED IN THE 5 YEARS OF THE IRAQI WAR. On March 25, OMNI will remembered these soldiers and all the victims of the war crime aggression by the US against Iraq. (Actually, the Pentagon count of US soldiers killed in the war is far fewer than the truth. See the new The Three Trillion Dollar War.)

WHY DID THE PEACE MOVEMENT OPPOSE THE IRAQ WAR AND OTHER WARS? One reason: We believed our institutions of democracy, freedom, the Bill of Rights, representative government and balance of powers, social and legal justice, habeas corpus, economic opportunity would win hearts and minds. Our leaders and the public that followed them believed Iraq had to be compelled by armed violence and the US freedoms has to be circumscribed. See below for some of the consequences.

See OMNI’s web site www.omnicenter.org for the beginnings of OMNI’s Campaign Against War. Your participation is invited.

Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln wearing a flight suit ... in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner. He was hailed by media stars as a "breathtaking" example of presidential leadership in toppling Saddam Hussein. Despite profound questions over the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported? In the run-up to war, skepticism was a rarity among journalists inside the Beltway. The [PBS "Buying the War"] program analyzes the stream of unchecked information from administration sources and Iraqi defectors to the mainstream print and broadcast press. While almost all the claims would eventually prove to be false, the drumbeat of misinformation about WMDs went virtually unchallenged by the media. "Buying the War" examines the press coverage in the lead-up to the war as evidence of a paradigm shift in the role of journalists in democracy and asks, four years after the invasion, what's changed? "More and more the media become ... common carriers of administration statements," says the Washington Post's Walter Pincus. "We've sort of given up being independent on our own."

Note: You can view the highly revealing documentary "Buying the War" or read the transcript at the link above.COERCINGALLIES--Munoz, Heraldo. A Solitary War: A Diplomat’s Chronicle of the Iraq War and Its Lessons. In the months leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration threatened trade reprisals against friendly countries who withheld their support, spied on its allies, and pressed for the recall of U.N. envoys that resisted U.S. pressure to endorse the war, according to an upcoming book by a top Chilean diplomat. The rough-and-tumble diplomatic strategy has generated lasting "bitterness" and "deep mistrust" in Washington's relations with allies in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, Heraldo Mu¿oz, Chile's ambassador to the United Nations, writes in his book.

See preceding newsletters for other causes of the illegal invasion.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER JOSEPH STIGLITZ REVEALS THE TRUE COSTS OF THE THREE TRILLION DOLLAR IRAQ WAR

Iraq War Sticker Shock

Interview: An iconoclastic economist discusses how the White House cooked the books on its march to war.

Joseph Stiglitz has never shied away from using his platform as a Nobel Prize winner in Economics to point out policy follies in high places. In 2002, after he had left a post as the World Bank’s chief economist, he published the bestseller Globalization and Its Discontents, in which he took the International Monetary Fund and the Treasury Department to task for their overzealous approach to privatization in Russia and their one-size-fits-all response to the East Asian financial crisis.

Last year, Stiglitz received renewed attention for a paper [PDF], co-written with Harvard professor of public finance Linda Bilmes that projected that the total economic costs of the Iraq War would exceed a trillion dollars. The hundreds of billions Congress has already approved for the war, they argued, tells only half the story. It doesn’t account for, among other things, increases in defense spending, the long-term costs for veterans’ health care and disabilities, the lost earning potential of the Americans killed and wounded, and increases in the price of oil.

See their new book: Stiglitz, Joseph and Linda Bilmes. The Three Trillion Dollars War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict. Interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now 2-29-08.

WAR VS. JOBS“The Wages of Peace: Spending on the War in Iraq is a Job killer….” By Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier. The Nation (March 31, 2008).

CLASS WAR AND SOCIAL DETERIORATION “The War and the Working Class,” The Nation (March 31, 2008). Soldiers are treated like workers in a neo-liberal economy. Includes a dramatic chart on the services that could have been provided for the people of Cleveland for the money squandered in Iraq.

FILM ON $COST$ OF WAR

Cost of War video gains momentum

AFSC’s Cost of War video continues to make online waves as it spreads the word about the outrageous amount of money being spent daily on the Iraq war—at the expense of meeting human needs.

Keep the momentum going by watching the video and sharing it with your friends >

HUMAN COSTS: CIVILIAN CASUALTIES

Accounts of at least 193 Iraqi civilian casualties caused by US found with this google search. Click on this shortened link.http://tinyurl.com/28td8f

HUMAN COSTS OF IRAQ WAR: WOMEN

March 6, 2008

Dear Dick,

As you read this, women in Iraq live in a Hell we have created.

In Central Iraq, 91.8% of women polled by Women for Women International say that violence against women is increasing. 74.5% of Iraqi women avoid leaving their homes. 63.2% have regularly not sent their children to school. 65.3% report that US security forces are only making security worse. One woman who was interviewed commented, "They gave us freedom and they took from us securityâ€¦but if I have to choose, I will choose safety and security."

We cannot allow this to continue.

As we gear up to honor International Women's Day on March 8, let us remember the dire situation of our Iraqi sisters. Let us use our voices to make their voices heard.

On March 11, we will deliver a letter to every woman Member of Congress. We will provide them with chilling information about the struggle of Iraqi women living under occupation, and press them to take supportive action in the next few weeks by voting to fund human needs, not warfare, in Iraq, and legislate the return of all the troops and contractors. Please add your name to our letter here. The letter will include the Women for Women International report on the status of Iraqi women. We hope you will read it yourself to learn more about the tragic circumstances they are living in.

If you attend a local International Women's Day event, please print these sign up sheets and encourage others to sign on to our letter. Fax them to us for delivery on Monday, 310-827-4547.

You can also honor International Women's Day by joining one of our regional training camps this weekend. Click here to find an inspiring day of community, creativity, skills-building and inspiration in your area.

P.S. These training camps will also serve to get us ready to mobilize for actions on the 5th anniversary of the war, March 18th and 19th. Click here to find out how to join us to tell Washington we've had Five Years Too Many of this devastating war.SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.

Fayetteville office: 251-1380

MORE NEW BOOKS ON IRAQIRAQ WAR

--Hayden, Tom. Ending the War in Iraq (2007). See his essay in The Nation (March 10, 2008), “The Old Revolutionaries of Vietnam” about his return to VN in 2007 and questioning the need for the war in the first place.

--Paretsky, Sara. Bleeding Kansas. Novel. A subplot is about opposing the Iraq War. Paretsky is the feminist crime novelist famous for her V. I. Warshawski series. See her recent memoir: Writing in an Age of Silence.

--Steele, Jonathan. Defeat: Why the U. S. and Britain Lost Iraq. Steele interviewed by Amy Goodman 3-13-08. Steele is a journalist with the UK Guardian. Example of contents: The chief problem is the occupation. Except for the first month or two, the people wanted our soldiers out, and then the people realized they were not liberated but occupied and the killing rate greater than under Saddam began.

--Hoyt, Mike, John Palattella, and the Staff of the Columbia Journalism Review. Reporting Iraq: An Oral History of the War by the Journalists Who Covered It. Melville House, 2008.IRAQ WAR COSTS: Resources, Human, Financial (see: Control of Information)

--Stiglitz, Joseph and Linda Bilmes. The Three Trillion Dollars War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict. Interviewed by Amy Goodman 2-29-08. Rev. Columbia Journalism Rev. March-April 2008). A massive expose of the incompetence, corruption, and waste of money, resources, and lives by the Bush Admin. and the corporations it favored.. The two biggest winners of the war: the oil industry and the military contractors. Mainly financial resources, but signicant sections on human costs.

-- Body of War (2008) www.bodyofwar.com is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about the true face of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week. Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. The film is produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, and features two original songs by Eddie Vedder. www.bodyofwarmusic.com You can hear an October 2005 Tell Somebody interview with Tomas Young here:

http://www.pacificanetwork.org/radio/content/view/276/47/

--Galatas, Janis. A Soldier’s Courage. Self-published, 2008 (Amazon). About her husband Norris’s recovery from extremely severe wounds. WE MUST GET OUT OF IRAQ: THE SHALOM CENTER

A Prophetic Voice in Jewish, Multireligious, and American Life

IRAQ IS A DOMESTIC SOCIAL-JUSTICE ISSUE

Even before the US government invaded Iraq, The Shalom Center was warning that the war would have a disastrous impact on American society at home, as well as on our international relations and our security.

Five years later, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz believes the overall costs of the war will reach $3 trillion - not just the immediate costs to taxpayers but also costs to our country of medical care for a generation of maimed veterans, interest on the immense national debt rolled up to pay for the war, etc. . "For a fraction of the cost of this war," said Mr. Stiglitz, "we could have put Social Security on a sound footing for the next half-century or more."

Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International -- hardly a flaming radical! -- joined Stiglitz in testifying to the war's enormous costs before the Congressional Joint Economic Committee: The money spent on the war each day is enough to enroll an additional 58,000 children in Head Start for a year, or make a year of college affordable for 160,000 low-income students through Pell Grants, or pay the annual salaries of nearly 11,000 additional border patrol agents or 14,000 more police officers.

EACH DAY.

(Much of this information about Stiglitz' and Hormats' analysis comes from Bob Herbert's column in the NY Times of March 4, 2008; some from Stiglitz' own writings. Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes have just published a book called The Three Trillion Dollar War.) ....

For of course spending a trillion dollars in Iraq (let alone three trillion) has meant massive shortfalls in desperately needed spending on this side of the water. It also sets up enormous federal deficits for the future, which will keep handcuffing other efforts to heal America. And this war (like most) has also handed much greater power to those who already held great power, and has greatly weakened civil liberties -- not the ingredients of social justice.

So it seems to me that the war will have to end before our country can address the deep needs of healing the wounded earth, creating decent schools, building railroads, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, treating immigrants and refugees decently. And out of the history of the ineffective war-ending efforts of the last year, it seems clear that it will take the united efforts of all of us who care about social justice to bring about an end to the war. In the world I know best - the Jewish community -- some social-justice groups have found it possible to address the war as well as domestic concerns: the Progressive Jewish Alliance in California and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice in New York City. PJA condemned the war plans from the beginning, on the basis of the illegality, immorality, wrong-headedness, and likely destructiveness of the war itself, even without examining its impact at home. JFREJ worked its way into opposition to the war by starting from a commitment to local needs of workers and the poor in New York, and then saw how damaging the Iraq war became to any effort to meet those needs. Three national Jewish organizations have opposed the Iraq war since before the invasion, and three have come to oppose it during the past year or so. The three veteran opponents are The Shalom Center, Tikkun (the magazine; the Tikkun Community did not address Iraq for several years), and the Workmen's Circle/ Arbeterring, a venerable heir of the Yiddish-speaking secular socialist tradition which is now in the process of rejuvenating itself, having merged with the magazine Jewish Currents and reached out to a new generation. The three newer opponents are Ohalah (the Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal), the Union for Reform Judaism, and the National Council of Jewish Women. All six of us are concerned with domestic social justice as well as the war. Yet some Jewish social-justice organizations are keeping hands off the war. One reason is that they are seeking to avoid dealing with issues involving Israel and US foreign policy that might affect Israel, because they see those issues as "too divisive" among Jews who agree about education, civil liberties, corporate misbehavior, women's rights, gay rights, etc.

They are certainly right that raising the issues most directly related to Israel are indeed likely to bring on shouting matches and worse among their supporters. But at this point, that does not seem likely when the issue is Iraq. For more than two-thirds of the Jewish community is now convinced that the war was a profound mistake, and wants to end it. There are still disagreements about how swiftly and on what terms, but those could be dealt with in the usual give-and-take of organizational policy-setting.Even if these groups continue to avoid the war, they are doing valuable work. But it seems to me their work could become much more valuable than it is.For here the bottom line of financial reality really is the bottom line: Spending one trillion dollars [Stiglitz and Bilmes show it's at leastd 3 trillion] showsto destroy leaves very little left over to create.Shalom, salaam, peace - Arthur The Shalom Center | 6711 Lincoln Drive | Philadelphia, PA 19119www.shalomctr.org | office@shalomctr.org | 215.844.8494

For years now the president has insisted the U.S. has no intention of building permanent bases in Iraq. In response to FCNL's campaign, Congress has enacted law after law banning the U.S. from building these bases. Yet on Monday, when Congress sent the president legislation that would again ban permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, President Bush announced he would ignore that provision of law. The president's decision implies he plans to lock his successor into a long-term occupation of Iraq.TED’s newsletter on ME: “Hawgblawg” my Hawgblawg: http://swedenburg.blogspot.com/ For in-depth analysis of the Middle East, visit Middle East Report On-Line: http://www.merip.org

Of the revenue generated, 95 percent would go to road improvements. Of that, 70 percent would go to state highways, and counties and cities would receive 15 percent each.

The remaining 5 percent would go to general revenue to replace the current tax, which amounted to less than $700,000 last year, and to fund environmental and conservation needs, Beebe said.For the full story, click on the following link

Beebe calls special session on severance tax, by The Morning News or see your morning newspaper.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Two members of AFSCME Local 965 were among those honored with Conservation Awards at the Arkansas Sierra Club's annual banquet last month.

Ward Four Alderman Lioneld Jordan received recognition as the sate's Outstanding City Official on environmental issues. The awards committee cited his tireless work on the Fayetteville City Council in promoting transportation impact fees to reduce the public cost of sprawl, his support for the Ozark Botanical Garden, acquisition of the Mt. Sequoyah Woods and the Brooks-Hummel Nature Preserve, his backing for the city's trail system, and his leadership in advocating bike lanes and a landscaped median on the Crossover Road project.

State Representative Lindsley Smith received recognition as a state official for having a 100% Environmental Voting Record on the Sierra Club Legislative Scorecard for the second consecutive session. The awards committee also noted her sponsorship of the Citizen Participation in Government Act that protects activists from expensive SLAPP lawsuits, an appropriation of state funds for construction of Scull Creek Trail, her legislation expanding the Wetlands Mitigation Bank Act to include additional aquatic resources, and the Net Metering Act to promote conservation and alternative energy resources.

Alderman Jordan is a supervisor with UA Facilities Management, and Representative Smith is a Research Assistant Professor of Communication. We add our congratulations to that from the Arkansas Sierra Club.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

5 YEARS TOO MANY!PEACE VIGILAt the Federal BuildingAs a follow-up to the Omni Center's very successful demonstration last Saturday March 8 against 5 years of war in Iraq, Omni is cooperating with MoveOn.org's national demonstration against the war this coming Wednesday March 19.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19th, 4-6pmAt the Federal Building Corner of Mountain St. and College Ave in FayettevilleThe war in Iraq has gone on for nearly five years. The unbearable costs at home and abroad keep mounting. It's clear that Americans are ready for a real change in direction.On March 19th, tens of thousands of people across the country will gather to observe the fifth anniversary of the war. We'll commemorate the sacrifices too many families have made, and the billions of dollars wasted in Iraq that could have been better invested at home.Join us on Wednesday, March 19th. Honor the sacrifice. Change our priorities. Bring the troops home.The demonstration will be at the Federal Building on College Ave, corner of Mountain St. and College Ave in Fayetteville, Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 4 to 6 PM.For details, go to www.omnicenter.org

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Save the Planet... Recycle EPA Head Stephen Johnson! EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson has abandoned his obligation to protect the environment.When California asked for a waiver from the Clean Air Act to set stronger restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, the agency's staff supported the idea with legal and technical backing. After a meeting with the White House however, Johnson denied California the waiver.Join us in asking Congress to call for his resignation. Johnson has demonstrated his wanton disregard for our environment and needs to be ousted before he can do anymore damage.So please, do the environmentally friendly thing - send Johnson to the recycling bin!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.Melanie Dietzel is a co-president of OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology. Thousands of people who visit the Fayetteville town square for the Farmer's Market each spring, summer and fall will recognize Dietzel as the person most frequently in charge of the OMNI table Saturday mornings on the square. She shares OMNI's message and listens well when others express their point of view. When she isn't out front leading, she is motivating OMNI volunteers and doing day-to-day OMNI chores in the background!Gladys Tiffany of the Town Branch Neighborhood is co-president of the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology. She has worked on World Peace Wetland Prairie events, such as the annual Earth Day celebrations (coming up again on April 20, 2008, at 1121 South Duncan Avenue in the neighborhood) and is a member of the Carbon Caps Task Force working to support the Governor's Commission on Global Warming.PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.Kelly Mulholland (left) has led OMNI's environmental efforts for several years, including the successful push to create the Governor's Commission on Global Warming and OMNI's Carbon Caps Task Force to support that commission. He and his wife, Donna, have sung their songs inspiring environmental conservation nationwide, including at the 2006 World Peace Wetland Prairie Earth Day celebration.Professor James Richard Bennett founded the OMNI Center with its wide-ranging but inseparable goals. Bennett's philosophy includes the belief that neither peace nor justice can be achieved without protecting and enhancing the earth's environment, natural resources and habitat for all living things.